Recordpub.com - Drug task force targets Nelson Ledges Quarry Park

By Colin McEwen

Record-Courier staff writer

Eight people were arraigned Monday in Portage County Municipal Court on charges of possessing and trafficking drugs at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park during the weekend.

On Friday evening, undercover officers from the Portage County Drug Task Force entered the park with $800 in cash and were approached by several people soliciting drugs. In less than an hour, five people were arrested, according to Portage County Sheriff David Doak.

Cedric Smith, 19, and Bradley Szuber, 20, both of Lima, were arrested and each charged with trafficking in marijuana, a fifth-degree felony. Their bonds were set at 10 percent of $25,000.

Perry Blankenship, 47, of Paw Paw, Mich., was charged with trafficking in psilocybin mushrooms, a fifth-degree felony, after he was discovered with a large amount of the hallucinogen. His bond also was set at 10 percent of $25,000.

Nicholas Melnik, 28, of Lowelville and Case Walters, 20, of Cleveland also were charged with trafficking in psilocybin mushrooms, a fifth-degree felony. Bond for each was set at 10 percent of $15,000.

On Saturday, the sheriff’s office received a report from the park’s security of further drug activity.

When two deputies responded, they arrested three more people.

Alex Morrow, 25, of Greensburg, Ind., was arrested and charged with trafficking drugs, a second-degree felony. His bond was set at 10 percent of $25,000.

Thomas McCusker, 21, of 3689 Beck Road, Mantua, was charged with fifth-degree felony trafficking in cocaine. His bond was set at 10 percent of $75,000.

Frances Blair, 21, of Cleveland, was charged with second-degree felony possession of psilocybin mushrooms. Her bond was also set at 10 percent of $75,000.

Saturday’s bust netted $9,000, Doak said.

Doak said he expects more charges to be filed.

Just near the evidence lockers at the Portage County Sheriff’s Office, Doak held up evidence bags from the weekend’s arrests highlighting the dozens of pills and narcotics inside.

“What really concerns us is that many people coming in and out of (the park) impaired,” he said. “We’re going to keep stepping on it. The task force guys said it was like shooting fish in a barrel.”

Doak said the enforcement at the park was the result of drug-related activity in and around the quarry. Throughout the years, authorities have made numerous drug-related arrests at the park, most recently in April when eight people were arrested in three days.

The weekend music festival was the Floyd/Zeppelin/Classic Fest, but Doak isn’t sure the people attending are there only for the music.

“The drugs are out of control up there,” Doak said. “It’s like a flea market, and I’m not going to ignore it.”

84.	Posted by Ohiogrowngerb July 2, 2009
	Haha Preston24 go get an education beyond your close minded high school propoganada education for one, secondly have fun live in a room with the light of the world blocked off. Prohibition ruins lives and makes dull drones like yourself, CANNABIS IS SO SCARY IT WILL MELT MY BRAIN IM SO SCARED. Go drink some beers ruin your liver and die in a car crash smart guy. Preston24 your guna hate me haha because I love political science and our great field of law and aspire to take on an occupation that will be on the forefront of the reform of marijuanna laws in ohio oh and also my friend im an aspiring botanist to and I grow that oh so killer ganja(killing pun intended) and I do not sell one bit I share with the sick and friends. To the police watching this page, thank you for busting coke, herion, and other hard drug dealers. I have had way to many friends ruin thier lives due to these scourge to our earth and that list is not complete with out the liver melting death dealing pharmacuticals. Preston24 quit being a joke and go bust a methlab or something, but sir you are a joke and a joke that will be forgotten just as fast as you opened your illinformed mouth.

81.	Posted by Ohiogrowngerb July 2, 2009
	Hard drugs are wack anyone with a brain knows this. There is no such thing as a Gateway drug, that is just more lies, the only gateway into hard drugs is a febel mind! Any how Preston24 no one wants to hear your very very closed minded, DEA lies. If you knew anything on the subject at all you would realize that you are direly wrong, dont believe me...ask a doctor he will tell you that pot,weed,grass or the correct term cannabis is benign{HARMLESS} to human health. He will also mostliky tell you that he doesnt agree with combusting plant material into your lungs but only because hes a doctor and tells the truth. Oh and one more thing humans have ingested cannbis and psyilocybe mushrooms for thousands and thousands of years by coutless cultures and peoples of the world and those two things will never stop, unless I guess if humans went exticnt or if dick cheney was super president of the world. Ill be sure to burn one for you preston, just take it easy and open your mind hah

79.	Posted by Preston24 July 1, 2009
	Good job Sheriff Doaks! Grateful Fest will be safer with you there on July 2nd-July 5th. Undercover hippies at Grateful Fest is a good idea! Rake those druggies to jail. Teach them a lesson at NLQP that selling drugs over there to our kids is just plain wrong. Let them know your task force aren't going to take it lightly anymore. We hope you sucess in coming down hard on NLQP this weekend. They like grass at NLQP? Sheriff Doaks and his Drug Task Force Undercover Officers are the perfect lawnmowers for the job! Barb, high breed pot is a gateway drug. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which considers all use of marijuana illegal, is less concerned about the drug's fragrance than how potent it is: federal drug officials say that the THC content in marijuana has skyrocketed since the 1970s. "It's a marketing thing, truly just marketing," said Greg Sullivan, head of the DEA's San Francisco field office. "We know they are different strains, like with wines, but we don't analyze that ... Marijuana is marijuana. They've gotten very good at growing marijuana. It's become an art." All marijuana is not created equal, and some smokers are experiencing a "golden age" of cannabis choices thanks to the wider use of marijuana for medical purposes.